Milan extends their winning streak to 22

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By Ryan Ronan

Kirksville Daily Express - Kirksville, MO

By Ryan Ronan

Posted Sep. 1, 2013 at 3:34 PM

By Ryan Ronan
Posted Sep. 1, 2013 at 3:34 PM

MILAN, Mo. – Friday night was a big night for the Milan Wildcats and the Milan community. The Wildcats put their 21-game regular season winning streak on the line, played their first game in the newly-renovated Cal Hubbard Field. As for the community they welcomed back the 1993 state championship team. Princeton was the guest for the night and didn't seem to care. The Tigers took the opening kick and went right down the field and put the ball in the endzone when Brant Faulkner connected with Hunter Boxley and the Tigers went up 7-0 just like that.

Milan plays by the motto of "48 minutes" and was not flustered. They took the ball right back down the field and Aaron Richardson scored the first of his four touchdowns and the 'Cats took control and won going away 34-7.

"We came out and executed and did what we needed to do. All of our backs ran well and Aaron did what he does," said Milan head coach John Dabney.

What Richardson does is run hard and make plays. He rushed for the four scores on 24 carries, piling up 213 yards along the way. He also cam up with a big interception that ended a Princeton drive early in the third.

Milan was unable to do anything with the extra possession, as they had to punt the ball back to the Tigers. On third and five from the Milan 38 Princeton converted on a pass interference penalty giving them a first and 10 on the 23. The fourth quarter opened and the Tigers only trailed 21-7. Faced with a fourth and five Faulkner was unable to connect with his receiver and the ball went back to Milan. The Wildcats did what they do, run the ball right at the Tigers. On fourth and goal from the one, Richardson scored TD No. 3 and Milan went up 28-7 with 5:45 left and the game was all but over from that point.

"It was momentum changer. The stop on fourth down was a big lift for us and seem to deflate them. Some teams after a sudden change like that like to come out and go for the jugular, but you have to do what you do and we run the ball, so that's what we did," said Dabney.

Richardson picked up over 50 yards alone on the drive that seemed to put the game away.

""We came out and were a little sketchy at times, but our offensive line started opening some big holes. You could tell by looking at them that they were tired. I told the linemen to just keep it up and we were just going to keep getting big chucks of yards," said Richardson.

The first half was s closely played game, in fact the Tigers came within a single yard of making the halftime score 21-14 when their Hail Mary came up one-yard short as the second quarter buzzer went off. Princeton was seemingly moving the ball at will during the first quarter and into the second, that stopped when the Wildcats defensive line started to get off blocks and make plays behind the line. Tyler Smith led the charge from his nose tackle position. On one drive he came within inches of taking down Faulkner before he could make the handoff. Then on a big third down play near mid-field he found that extra step that allowed him to take down the quarterback before the play could even get started.

Page 2 of 2 - "It was a hard battle, but we played all 48 minutes and we came out with a big victory. It just takes a while to get used to what they do offensively and then we got on it and started making plays," said Smith.

Next week the Wildcats will look to push their winning streak to 23 when they travel to Albany. Things went well against Princeton, but Dabney isn't going to let his team stop working.

"We have a lot to do to get better still. We just have to play well, tackle well and compete in all three phases," said Dabney.

Milan is sticking to their routine so strictly for this week that they will be right back at practice come Monday.

Ryan Keuhn went 1-for-2 for 20 yards passing. Holden Stallbaumer had that one catch. As a team Milan ran the ball 46 times for 357 yards, nearly running for a first down every attempt as they averaged over eight yards a run.